Nations Television
Nations Television, also referred to as NT, is a group of Robloxian television channels owned and operated by rTV Networks and Lava Lamp Entertainment. NT consists of five channels which broadcast generalist content from and aimed towards the Robloxian nations (or "Ro-Nations") community. History Nations broadcasting and RNT As 2017 progressed, interest began to rise in the expansion of Robloxian television to cover the large Robloxian nations community (dubbed "Ro-Nations" for short). The first venture into the field was made by TheMagRBLX, who relaunched the RNT channels (acquired from SuperLol211, who had started the channels earlier in the year) as a television service serving the Ro-Nations community. RNT under the early months of TheMag's ownership was largely inactive, despite a rebrand to (and back from) the HNT name occurring at some point during the period. The RNT auction The start of the events which would lead to the launch of Nations Television occurred on September 8, 2017, as TheMagRBLX intended to auction off RNT to the highest bidder. Among the interested parties were buddbudd222, BenzBot, owner of rTV Networks. While BenzBot offered on multiple occasions to outright acquire the channels at the time, Mag insisted on an auction. Bidding began at R$10, but buddbudd soon raised the price to R$500. Further activity was stalled until October 16, 2017, when auction talks rose again, and WeepinnWillow, owner of Lava Lamp Entertainment, entered the fray, with intentions to retain RNT's nations broadcasting format. BenzBot, looking to do the same if he acquired the channels, offered to run the group as a joint-venture with Willow if her bid for the channels was successful. Buddbudd continued his bid to acquire RNT due to the fact that, under SuperLol's ownership, it started a movie channel, RNT Movies 1, that budd wanted for himself (with disregard to the other five RNT channels). On October 21, 2017, the auction intensified, as buddbudd222 began a war of financial brinksmanship over the RNT channels against the BenzBot/WeepinnWillow consortium. Budd offered, at the time, R$3,000 for the channels, which BenzBot criticized for being "ludicrously overpriced", given the history and relative inactivity of the channels. The going price for RNT went up several further times, ultimately reaching a climax as budd placed a bid for R$20,000 for RNT. As this was many dozens of times what BenzBot would have liked to pay for the channels, and almost as much as he could pay at the time for anything overall, he accused buddbudd of bidding in bad faith, and of jacking up the price of the RNT channels far beyond what they were worth, additionally noting that budd already owned two movie channels (BBMN and BBMN UK), making a third a highly untenable position (as at the time, all Robloxian television companies which operated movie channels owned two at most, in order to keep from spreading Robloxiwood content too thinly). In a surprise move, WeepinnWillow offered the Cartoon Everything name for RNT, then Joystick and Talker; both offers Mag declined. Given the bidding process had grown too chaotic by this point, Mag called off the entire auction and restated his retention of ownership of RNT. Further attempts at a simpler acquisition deal for one party or the other (either buddbudd222 or BenzBot and WeepinnWillow) ultimately failed outright, in spite of concessions from the BenzBot/Willow proposal including Mag retaining a 20% stake or spinning off RNT Movies 1 to buddbudd, and Mag retained ownership of the RNT brand, opting to relaunch the brand as a single channel focused on the Ro-Nations community late in the fall of 2017. Launch of NT Following their failure to acquire RNT outright, BenzBot and WeepinnWillow pushed forward with their own plans, laying the groundwork for a competitor to RNT starting on October 22, 2017. A new company was started as a joint venture between rTV Networks and Lava Lamp Entertainment, and feeds originally allocated to the former roChannels, some of which had since been reallocated to rTV3+, rTV3 GT, and rTV Fun, were reallocated to the new NT channels. (The displaced channels moved to new, purpose-made streams.) Nations Television was officially launched on October 24, 2017, complete with a Twitter handle and a carriage deal on roTV set from launch. Overtime Studios joined the joint venture on November 2, 2017, then left several weeks later due to the departure of AGavent. 2018 Robloxian television transition After facing lower-than-expected interest from the Ro-Nations community in the project, rTV Networks announced in June 2018 that they would not launch high-definition versions of the Nations Television channels in advance of the transition as the broadcaster "reconsidered the state" of the company. Multiple proposals for the future of NT are being considered. As of November 2018, Nations Television is now a fully-owned subsidiary of rTV Networks, following its acquisition of Lava Lamp Entertainment in September 2018. rTVN intends to relaunch Nations Television in high definition in early 2019, though with a reduction in the number of channels offered (currently two are planned), as rTVN builds NT's programming catalog and due to a restructuring of the roTV channels list which makes five NT channels no longer necessary. Programming and format Nations Television consists of five general entertainment channels; NT1, NT2, NT3, NT4, and NT5. They operate somewhat similarly to some sports channels, in which programming can overflow onto or between any of the channels as necessary. In contrast to most Robloxian television channels, NT does not intend to produce the majority of its content, instead opting to work with existing Ro-Nations countries, governments, and media organizations to bring their content to, and help them broadcast on, the NT service, with the assistance of NT's Robloxian TV experience as needed. The first official content deal for NT was made with Al Jazeera Roblox on November 11, 2017, followed by One America News on November 17, 2017. Current content partners * Al Jazeera Roblox (November 11, 2017 - present) * One America News (November 17, 2017 - November 26, 2017) Category:Networks Category:Upcoming networks